McChrystal: ‘Nobody Is Winning’ in Afghanistan Conflict

U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McChrystal said that although progress is being made in Afghanistan, “nobody is winning at this point,” in an interview airing Thursday on the NewsHour.

“I think that in the last year, we’ve made a lot of progress,” he said. “I think I’d be prepared to say nobody is winning at this point, where the insurgents I think felt that they had momentum a year ago, felt that they were making clear progress. I think that’s stopped.”

You can view his response here:

McChrystal also described what’s ahead for Kandahar, the spiritual hub of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

“What we are working to do — and we’re not calling it an operation, we’re calling it an effort to what we do, call it a rising tide of security — increasing police capacity inside the city and then securing the areas inside the city,” he said, “so that the area is not menaced by insurgents, we have much better ability to protect the people, and then let life go on.”

Watch his full description here:

And as the July 2011 deadline for U.S. troops to start withdrawing approaches, McChrystal emphasizes that a long-term partnership with Afghanistan will continue:

The NewsHour airs McChrystal’s full interview with Jeffrey Brown on Thursday.

PBS NewsHour allows open commenting for all registered users, and encourages discussion amongst you, our audience. However, if a commenter violates our terms of use or abuses the commenting forum, their comment may go into moderation or be removed entirely. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow these basic guidelines: comments must be relevant to the topic of the post; may not include profanity, personal attacks or hate speech; may not promote a business or raise money; may not be spam. Anything you post should be your own work. The PBS NewsHour reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the comments or emails that we receive. By submitting comments, you agree to the PBS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which include more details.